BJP, SP Make All-Out Efforts To Win Ghosi By-Election

The Ghosi assembly by-election in Uttar Pradesh has become a fierce battle between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) with nothing at stake except pride. Both parties have deployed senior leaders and engaged in strategies, luring voters, and making promises while also accusing each other of being opportunistic, corrupt, and criminal.

The BJP's candidate, Dara Singh Chauhan, won the Ghosi seat in the March 2022 UP assembly elections on the SP ticket but recently quit the party and joined the BJP. He resigned as an MLA from the seat and would have lost his membership under anti-defection laws. When the by-election for Ghosi was announced, the BJP once again made Chauhan its candidate. In response to this betrayal, the SP fielded Sudhakar Singh, an upper caste Thakur candidate, to challenge Chauhan, who belongs to the OBC community. Interestingly, Chauhan had previously quit the BJP and joined the Samajwadi Party just before the assembly elections last year.

By-elections are usually less vocal when the government has a comfortable majority, and in this case, the BSP and Congress are not even contesting. The BSP has declared support for the SP candidate as both parties are part of the INDIA - a grouping of anti-BJP parties. However, things are different in the Ghosi by-election due to its historically socialist and communist stronghold, with fading support for Congress in the early years after independence. Former Union Minister and Congress leader Kalpnath Rai represented the Ghosi parliamentary seat four times in the 1990s.

The Samajwadi Party believes it deserves to win the seat due to the large number of OBCs and Muslims in the constituency. To ensure victory, SP leaders, including Akhilesh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, and Shiv Pal Yadav, are campaigning in Ghosi alongside other senior party members. On the other hand, the BJP is relying on the support of upper caste and Dalit voters, as well as the advantage of being the governing party in the state. Numerous BJP ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Transport Minister Daya Shankar Singh, are actively campaigning in Ghosi.

For the SP, winning the September 5 election and retaining the OBC majority seat is crucial to showcase their ability to win back voters who may have shifted their support to the BJP. It is also important for Akhilesh Yadav to break the perception that the SP is a party exclusively for Yadavs. A victory would boost the morale of the SP cadre, who have experienced repeated defeats in recent elections. Meanwhile, the BJP aims to win Ghosi to emphasize that the party, led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, can overcome any challenge in elections regardless of the candidate's support or caste affiliation.